The Church at Philadelphia

3: 7-13

DIG: What was different about this church from all the others?
What does the key of David
open? Why does Christ say some claim to be Jews though theyare not? Who were
they? What
did they do? How was this church
able to persevere? Describe their enemies. How did
their reward fit in with
their faithfulness?

REFLECT: Yeshua Messiah has placed an open door to the
kingdom of God before
each and every person (John 316). What have you
done with that open door?
Have you walked through it to salvation? Or have you slammed it in the
Lord’s face? Such insurmountable opportunities turn our
attention away from ourselves and force us to trust completely in ADONAI.
So, as you look beyond your own current “limitations” and the doors that
Jesus has closed in your life, what other opportunities
could you be overlooking?

There are those who say, “I wouldn’t step foot in that place. They are just a
bunch of hypocrites. I know so and so, and she lives like the devil all week and
goes there on the weekend.” The plain truth is that there are no perfect places
of worship. In fact, local church is merely a bunch of sinners getting together.
Believers are simply imperfect, sinning people. The body of Christ made up of
Jewish and Gentile believers (Ephesians 2:14), is not a place for people with no
weaknesses; it is a fellowship of those who are aware of their weaknesses and
long for the strength and grace of God to fill their lives. It is a kind of
hospital for the sick and the needy.

To the angel of the church in Philadelphia
(3:7a). Like all churches, the one
inPhiladelphia was not perfect. Yet Jesus commended its members for their
faithfulness and loyalty. They, and the congregation at Smyrna, were the only
two of the seven that received no rebuke from Yeshua. In spite of
their fleshly
struggles, the believersin Philadelphia were faithful and obedient, serving and
worshiping the Lord. They provide a good model of a loyal church.102

1. The description of Christ: For the first time,
His description does not refer
back to the vision of the glorified Son of Man in 1:12-16. This suggests a
distinctively new message to that particular church. First
He emphasized His own
unique attributes of holiness and truthfulness by saying: Here is the message of
HaKadosh, the True One (3:7b CJB).HaKadosh means the Holy One, and is
translated Sovereign Ruler, or God the Father in 6:10. Furthermore, in the
Talmud, the Jewish Prayerbook and other writings, it is common to refer to God
as HaKadosh, barukh hu or the Holy One,blessed be He. But here, and First John
2:20, this title refers to Yeshua Messiah so there is no need for the
blessed be He because here the Holy One is talking about Himself. Consequently,
Christ is to
be identified with God, but He is not
the Father.
Jesus is the True One, the one who is
faithful.

Furthermore, Christ describes Himself as the Onewho holds the key of David(3:7c). It is clear from
5:5 and 22:16 that David is a symbol of the messianic
office. To hold the key is to have the authority because the one holding it had
total supervision of the royal chamber. He was the one who would decide who
could, and who could not see the king. There is a reference to the key of David
that is particularly important. The Bible tells us that the LORD placed
onthe
shoulders of Eliakim, the king’s chief steward, the key to the house of David.
What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts, no one can open (Isaiah
22:22). Oriental keys, being unusually large and heavy, were usually carried
on
the shoulders. This idea is expressed in Isaiah 9:6, where it is said of the
Messiah, "For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government
will be upon his shoulders."103

Therefore, Eliakim was presented to the people in Hezekiah’s day as a visible
foreshadowing of the coming Messiah, upon whose shoulders the LORD would place
the kingdoms of the world. Like Eliakim, Jesus presents Himself asHe who opens no one
can shut, and what He shuts, no one can open (3:7d). This emphasizes
His
omnipotence. There is no one more powerful than He. During the days of
Isaiah,
ADONAIasked Isra'el: When I act, who can reverse it (Isaiah 43:13)? Obviously,
no one. No one can shut the door to the Kingdom of
God if He opens it, and
no
one can force the door to the Kingdom
open if He shuts it.

Jesus gave His disciples the commission to go and make disciples of all nations
on the basis of what He had said in
Matthew 28:18: All authority in heaven and
on earth has been given to Me. He alone controls
the door of opportunity for the
preaching of the Gospel. No world leader can shut that
door unless Messiah shutsit. This is not only true of the Great Missionary Movement, but it is also true
of the individual. The late Dr. Henrietta Mears was a great leader of young
people and she often used Revelation 3:7c in challenging those called of
the
Lord to obey His word without fear or reservation. This message is much needed
by the Lord’s servants today.104

2. The church: The message to this
church is in some respects the most
interesting of all the messages to the seven (3:7a). It was a small church,
possessing only a little strength, but it remained faithful to
the Lord. Some
believers from Philadelphia were martyred with Polycarp at Smyrna. Its enemies
came from outside, not inside the body of Christ for there is no mention of
heresy or division. It had a good deal in common with that at Smyrna. Both
received no blame, only praise. Both suffered from those who claimed
to be Jews but were not, both were persecuted it would seem by the Romans, both were
assured their opposition was satanic and both were promised a crown.105The
church there lasted for centuries, unyielding even after the region was overrun
by the Muslims, finally giving way in the mid-fourteenth century.

3. The city:Philadelphia was about twenty-eight miles southeast of Sardis
(3:7b). From the Hermus River Valley, where Sardis and Smyrna were located, a
smaller valley of the Cogamis River branches off to the southeast. A road
through this valley provides the best means of ascending the 2,500 feet from the
Hermus Valley to the vast central plateau.

Philadelphia was the youngest of the seven cities of Asia Minor, founded sometime after
189 BC by either King Eumenes of Pergamum or his brother, Attalus II. In either
case, Attalus was so loyal and devoted to his brother that he was given the
nickname Philadelphus, which is similar to the Greek word
Philadelphia, meaning
brotherly love (Romans 12:10; First Thessalonians 4:9; Hebrews 13:1;
First Peter 1:22; Second Peter 1:7 twice; and here in Revelation 3:7). Brotherly love
occurs seven times in the Renewed Covenant, but only here is it used of the city
itself.106 Philadelphia was intended to serve as a “missionary city” to bring
the Greek culture to the newly annexed area of Lydia and Phrygia. This succeeded
so well that by AD 19 the Lydian language had been completely replaced by the
Greek, which had become the official language of the Roman Empire.

It is known as the city of earthquakes and was destroyed several times. The
devastating earthquake of AD 17 leveled twelve cities in Asia Minor over night.
Although the initial damage was greater in Sardis, Philadelphia, being closer to
the fault line, experienced after-shocks for years. Many of the people remained
outside the city, living in huts. They lived in constant fear of another
disaster and the habit of going out to the open country had probably not
disappeared by the time the seven letters was written in AD 95 or 96.107 The
city was also located near the edge of a volcanic region whose fertile soil was
ideal for vineyards. Because of this, the people there worshiped Dionysus, the
god of wine. Philadelphia was prosperous partly from the grape industry that
flourished in the area, but also because of its location. It was on the normal
trade route, and had a strategic location that sat on the border of three
ancient Roman provinces, Mysia, Lydia and Phrygia. If you wanted to go somewhere
in Asia Minor, you had to go through Philadelphia. It became known as the
“gateway to the East.”108

4. The concern: Because of their faithfulness, this
church, along with the one
in Smyrna, received no rebuke in its letter from the Lord. The fact that
Yeshua,
the holy, true sovereign, omnipotent Lord of the Church, found nothing to
condemn them for must have been extremely encouraging to
them.

5. The commendation: Finding nothing in their
deeds that He disapproved of,
Jesus commended them on their faithfulness, saying:
See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut (3:8a).Jesus holds the key to that
door
of salvation. In fact, His name means salvation.He had placed before them
an
open door to the Kingdom of God and
no one could shut it.

I know that you have little worldly
strength, but much spiritual power, since
you have kept My word and have not denied My name
(3:8b). Evidently there had
been persecution of some sort during the first century, but
the believers there
had stood firm. For such a little band of
believers, they were very courageous.
Along with Paul they could say: For Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in
insults, in hardships, in persecutions, and in difficulties. For when I am weak,
then I am strong (Second Corinthians 12: 10). So despite
their small size, there
was an abundance of spiritual fruit.109

Jesus then warned them about those who claimed to be the people of
God
but were not. He said:
They are of the synagogue of Satan, the Adversary.
Apparently the false apostles and other false teachers who plagued the other
churches had been unable to get any hearing in either Philadelphia or Smyrna.110
Apparently they organized themselves into a pseudo-messianic
synagogue. As it
usually does, their false doctrine probably led to sinful and immoral behavior.
Yeshua declared to the church in Philadelphia, “They
claim to be Jews though they are not.” As in 2:9, nowhere in the New Covenant are unbelieving
Jews
called non-Jews, therefore, they were
liars pretending to be praacticing Jews. From Messiah’s point of view, because they were
turning to a different gospel, which
was really no gospel at all (Galatians 1:6b-7a), they were actually not from a
true messianic synagogue of God, but from a
counterfeit
synagogue of
Satan (3:9a).

But in the larger context of history, we must remember that it is still the
period described by Hosea when Israel is on the sideline of
God’s prophetic
program and considered to be not His people (Hosea 1:8-9, 2:23). But in the
future they will again become His people (Hosea 1:10-2:1, 3:5). Here John looks
forward to the messianic Kingdom, when Yeshuawill make unbelievers
come and
fall down at their feet and acknowledge that He has
loved them (3:9b). It is
interesting to note that during this time that Jewish missions came into its
own. It first began in Germany, took root in England, and finally came to
fruition in the United States. It continues to be a time when many of the
branches are being regrafted into their own Olive Tree. So there will come a day
when the kings and queens of the earth will bow down before messianic
Jews in
the millennial Kingdom (Isaiah 49:23; 60:14).

Jesus promised that since they had kept His command to endure
patiently, He
would also keep them from, or out of, the hour of trial that is going to come
upon the whole world to test those unbelievers who live on the earth(6:10,
8:13, 11:10, 13:8, 13:12-14, 17:2 and 8). Because
the believers at Philadelphia
had passed so many trials, Yeshua promised to spare
them from the ultimate
trial(3:10). The sweeping nature of the promise extends far beyond the local
Philadelphia congregation in the first century to encompass all the faithful
Church throughout the history of the B'rit
Chadashah. The hour oftrial is
Daniel’s 70th Week(Daniel 9:25-27), the time of trouble for Jacob (Jeremiah 30:7), or the
seven-year period known as the Great Tribulation.111Jesus Christ promises to
keep His Body of believers from this hour of trial that will come upon
unbelievers. However, if the lost repent during that time, they will be martyred
and saved .

Christ promised the church in Philadelphia that it would remain strong and
secure (3:11-12). He said: I am coming
quickly (3:11a). The coming of the Lord
to Ephesus (2:5), Pergamum (2:16), and Sardis (3:3) posed a threat to each
church. At Ephesus the lampstand was to be removed unless they repented; at
Pergamum Yeshua would war against them with the sword of His mouth; at Sardis
He
would come like a thief in the night (3:3). The coming to
Philadelphia, however,
would end their time of persecution and establish
them as permanent citizens of
the kingdom of God.112 And because we are in the
Philadelphia Church Age now, it
will happen only after several specific things occur (see Bg –
TheSequence of
Pretribulational Events). Nevertheless, every
believer’s response should be:
Amen, come Lord Jesus (22:20).

6. The command: Because of
Messiah’s impending return for His Body, believers
are commanded to hold on to whatthey had. The believers at
the church in
Philadelphia had been faithful to the Lord in the midst of persecution.
They
were to continue in their faithfulness. Those who hold on to their faith
demonstrate the genuineness of their salvation (Matthew 10:22; 24:13). In
writing to the Colossian church about Yeshua, the
apostle Paul said: He has now
reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in
His sight, without blemish and free from accusation – if you continue in your
faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel
(Colossians 1:22-23). The Bible teaches that those who abandon their faith were
never really believers to begin with: They went out from us, but they did not
really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained
with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us (First John
2:19). Our salvation is secure in Christ, but these
believers in
Philadelphia were commanded to
hold on.

Messiah’s promise to the one who faithfully persevered was that no one would take
your crown(3:11b). The crown of life was also promised to
the believers in
Smyrna. God has promised this crown to all those who remain faithful to
Him when
under persecution. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when
he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised
to those who love Him (James 1:12). The crown was the wreath awarded to the
winner of an athletic contest (1 Corinthians 9:25; 2 Timothy 4:8). The
metaphor would have been especially appropriate to this church because the city
of Philadelphia was well known for it games and festivals.113

7. The counsel: In light of the historical background of
Philadelphia’s
disastrous earthquake, it’s significant that Yeshua promised that
they would be
made pillars in the Temple of God, never to go out from
it again. The one
who overcomes I will make a pillar in the Temple of My God (3:13a). An overcomer is
one who overcomes the world (First John 2:15-16) by faith in the Messiah (John16:33). A pillar represents stability, permanence, and immobility.
Pillars can
also represent honor. In pagan temples pillars were often carved to represent a
specific deity. The marvelous promise Christ makes to
believers is that
they
will have an eternal place of honor in the Temple of God.114 To people that were
accustomed to fleeing their city because of earthquakes, the promise that
they
would never again have to
leavetheir homes in the New Jerusalem(21:1-27), was
understood by them as eternal security in the Kingdom of
God (see my commentary onThe Life of
Christ Ms - The
Eternal Security of the Believer).

Then, to assure them that
their citizenship was in heaven was guaranteed, Jesus
Christ said: I will write on them the name of My God and the city of My God, the
new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from My God (3:12b).
People
identify with the name given to them, and He
added: And I will also write on them
My new name. In the TaNaKh, God put
Hisname(YHVH) on the people of Isra'el by
having the Levites recite Aaron’s blessing (Numbers 6:24-27). The faithful bear
the name of God(22:4), and
the name ofthe Messiah (14:1), including their own
new name(2:17, 3:12b, 19:12). Therefore, as proof of ownership, believers will
have three names written on them: the name of God, the New Jerusalem, and the
new name ofYeshua the Messiah. Interestingly enough, the followers of the
antichrist will have his name written on them also (see Dp –
The Mark is the
Name of the Beast or the Number of His Name).

The counsel:Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the
churches, closes all seven letters (3:13).
Believers must pay attention to the
truths found in each letter because these churches describe seven different
kinds of believers in every body of
Christ. This letter to the church in
Philadelphia reveals how the Lord pours out His blessings on those who remain
faithful to Him. That should motivate each one of us to follow their example.

Thank you, Lord, that You have opened the door of heaven to me. May many pass
through that door to enjoy eternal life with
You.115

The name Philadelphia literally means brotherly love. Our
Lord selected that
church to describe the kind of revival that
started around 1730 and will
continue until the Rapture. Just as Sardis came out of Thyatira, so the
Philadelphia revival came out of Sardis. The congregations of the Reformation
became dead as a state church. Philadelphia, however, was marked by vitality of
life. In that age, ADONAIproduced revivals in Europe and the British Isles,
even spreading to America. Those revivals in turn, produced what is known today
as the Great Missionary Movement.

It was this movement of God the Holy
Spirit that caused an English shoe cobbler
to become so burdened for the lost of India that in 1793 he became the first
foreign missionary. Other young people whom the Spirit ofGod also touched
followed William Carey, and the movement began. Our Lordplaced before that
generation an open door. And that
open door found such men as Adoniram Judson,
David Livingston, Jonathan Goforth, Hudson Taylor and literally thousands of
other people going to Africa, China, Japan, Korea, India South America and the
islands of the sea.

There were two factors that led to the Great Missionary Movement. The first was
the printing of the Bible in the language of the people and the natural tendency
of the common person to take the Word of God literally. Therefore, when a young
man like William Carey read Christ’s command to go and make disciples of all
nations(Matthew 28:19), he was inclined to obey it. The second was the
increased interest of the study of the doctrine of the Second Coming. Around
1800 the doctrine of the premillennial return of Messiah, which had been all
but dead since the end of the third century, was revived. This teaching led to a
holy and separated Church. In preparation
for thereturn of Yeshua, His body of
believers
was willing to do whatever He commanded.116

This is the last mention of the true, the Church until we
get to the wedding feast of the Lamb in 19:7. The Church
will be absent during Daniel's 70th Week because the groom, or Christ, will take His Bride, the Church, to His home in heaven
(see Fg -Blessed Are
Those who are Invited to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb).

When the Rapture comes, the Church, embodied by all the true believers in
Messiah, will be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air
(First Thessalonians 4:17). As a result, only a shadow of the true universal
Church will be left behind. In reality, it
will merely have the appearance of being religious. Therefore, as we continue
southward, as if completing a circle, we come to the last leg of our journey.
Just down the dark, dusty road we come to the apostate
church of Laodicea.